Coal and the iron and steel works that consumed it were, 125 years ago, the foundations of Andrew Carnegie’s fortune.(1) So, his life would seem unlikely to hold lessons for investors concerned about global warming. But it does.
Carnegie’s Causes
The Scottish immigrant had two great causes. Most recognize his name today in the US and UK for his philanthropic investments in vehicles offering opportunities for human betterment: Carnegie libraries, university scholarships, Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, teacher pensions (TIAA-CREF), etc.
(read more…)
The Sustainable Endowment Institute (SEI) recently released its College Sustainability Report Card. According to its Executive Summary, the Report Card “seeks to encourage sustainability as a priority in college operations and endowment investment practices by offering independent yearly assessments of progress.”
Institutions of higher education have played a significant role in SRI at least since the South African divestment movement of the 1980s. The Report Card examines both the investment practices of these schools and the sustainability of core university operations.
SEI finds that “the level of campus sustainability initiatives far outpaces that of endowment sustainability activity.” Responsible food-service and recycling practices, for example, earned “A” grades for 29% of schools. Only 4% of colleges achieved the same grade for their “Endowment Transparency.”
(read more…)
Herewith from Fox News via London’s Sunday Telegraph the latest example of the exposure of inconsistences – at least in the eye of the beholder – between a foundation’s mission and its investments:
SHE PROVIDED the finale to yesterday’s Live Earth concerts, even writing a special song to mark the worldwide musical event. But instead of being lionised, Madonna found herself accused of hypocrisy after allegations that she has financial links to some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The Ray of Light Foundation, a charitable fund established by the star to support her favourite causes and named after one of her biggest hits, has $4.2 million … of shares in a string of companies including Alcoa, the American aluminium giant, the Ford Motor Company and Weyerhaeuser, an international forest products company. All have been criticised by environmentalists.
(read more…)
Whatever the rights and wrongs of mission-related investment, the bad press of the past few weeks may mark a shift for the foundation, into an era when public opinion no longer takes for granted that giving alone is virtuous. -The Economist (2007)
By May the uproar caused by the stories in January about the inconsistencies between the Gates Foundation’s investments and its programs had subsided to a dull roar. The story then exploded again around Warren Buffett’s coming $31 billion contribution to the Foundation and his company’s investments and Darfur.
It seems, therefore, the right moment to take stock of some lessons to be drawn from the renewed furor.
(read more…)
